Solar Energy In Agriculture

This is the 4th volume in an international energy reference book series aimed at bringing together, in a concise form, the basic principles and the most relevant data concerning both the efficient use of energy in agriculture and the food industry and alternative energy sources for agriculture. The theme of this volume is solar energy applications in agriculture. Since the 1960's the major industrial nations have faced an energy crisis; there is a realisation that fossil fuels exist in finite quantitities. In the 1970's and 80's, deposits of CO 2 in the atmosphere have increased, arguably resulting in an increase in global warming. Utilisation of solar energy could contribute to the improvement of man's standard of living while helping to decrease the potential for disasterous earth warming. The application of solar energy in agriculture is, in the main, environmentally benign. The purpose of this volume is to assist the solar energy system designer in understanding the principles of solar energy, to provide conceptual designs which are useful as application examples, and to provide specific equations and data for the design of specific applications.

Solar Energy Advancements in Agriculture and Food Production Systems aims to assist society and agricultural communities in different regions and scales to improve their productivity and sustainability. Solar energy, with its rapidly growing technologies and nascent market, has shown promise for integration into a variety of agricultural activities, providing an alternative, sustainable solution to current practices. To meet the future demands of modern sustainable agriculture, this book addresses the major existing problems by providing innovative, effective, and sustainable solutions using environment-friendly, advanced, energy-efficient, and cost-optimized solar energy technologies. This comprehensive book is intended to serve as a practical guide for scientists, engineers, policymakers, and stakeholders involved in agriculture and related primary industries, as well as sustainable energy development, and climate change mitigation projects. By including globally implemented solar-based agriculture projects in each chapter and highlighting the key associated challenges and benefits, it aims to bridge the knowledge gap between the market/real-world applications and research in the field. Provides up-to-date knowledge and recent advances in applications of solar energy technology in agriculture and food production Introduces two advanced concepts of agrivoltaics and aquavoltaics and addresses their potentials, challenges, and barriers Explains the application of solar energy technologies in agricultural systems, including greenhouse cultivation, water pumping and irrigation, desalination, heating and cooling, and drying Explains the use of solar energy in agricultural automation and robotics, considering precision agriculture and smart farming application Describes new applications of solar energy in agriculture and aquaculture, and technoeconomic and environmental impacts of solar energy technologies in agriculture and food production

The agri-food chain consumes about one third of the world’s energy production with about 12% of it for crop production and nearly 80% for processing, distribution, retail, preparation and cooking. The agri-food chain also accounts for 80-90% of total global freshwater use where 70% alone is for irrigation. Additionally, on a global scale, freshwater production consumes nearly 15% of the entire energy production. It can therefore be argued that making agriculture and the agri-food supply chain independent from fossil fuel use has a huge potential to contribute to global food security and climate protection not only for the next decades but also for the coming century. Provision of secure, accessible and environmentally sustainable supplies of water, energy and food must thus be a priority. One of the major objectives of the world’s scientists, farmers, decisions makers and industrialists is to overcome the present dependence on fossil fuels in the agro-food sector. This dependency increases the volatility of food prices and affects economic access to sustenance. This book provides a critical review of recent developments in solar, wind and geothermal energy applications in agriculture and the agro-food sector such as processing, distribution, retail, preparation and cooking.

Food security is one of the primary themes of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. In this regard, agricultural engineering is considered the backbone of agriculture, and agricultural mechanization is considered a helpful way to enhance crop yield and farmers’ profitability. Technology in Agriculture presents research in the field of agricultural engineering technologies and applications in agricultural equipment engineering, biosystem engineering, energy systems engineering, and computers in agriculture. It provides an overview of recent advancements in agricultural engineering and examines key aspects of emerging technologies and their applications. In addition, the book explores modern methodologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning for agricultural mechanization.

In its continuing efforts to improve production and storage , European agriculture and food industry consumes ever more energy. Hence, as was the case for all European sectors founded on intensive energy consump tion, agriculture was also severely affected by the shortages and price increases of conventional energy sources over the past decade. The energy consciousness generated in this way led to a widespread con sideration of the application of other, renewable energy sources. The potential applications in agriculture are, however, extremely diverse, and this explains to a great extent the fragmentary nature and even in some cases the mediocre level of current research. The objective of this book is, therefore, to guide the reader in a syste matic way through the apparent chaos of operational data which are currently available on the subject matter: thermal applications within agriculture of solar energy by means of solar collectors, passive designs and storage devices. While in volume I of this series H this area is assessed from a more general economic perspective, this tome II takes a more detailed technical approach. The results of this book were produced in the form of a European concerted action under the leadership of the Commission in Brussels. All possible data were collected by national representatives in the EC member countries. Coordinators were Professor V. Goedseels and Mr E. Van der Stuyft from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Professor G.

The book focuses on all the possible options of solar energy use and generation in Agriculture sector. The book covers basic fundamentals of solar energy resources and technologies are discussed in detail. Overall, the book contains 23 chapters. Out of these, first two chapters focus on solar energy use pattern in agriculture sector in India at present time along with future scopes. The next eight chapters (Chapter No. 3-10) give a basic knowledge on fundamental principles of solar photovoltaic and thermal technologies. Last 13 chapters (Chapter No. 11-23) presents the applications of solar thermal and photovoltaic technology in different farm operations and postharvest processing in agriculture sector. The book will cater the needs for students, researchers, various stakeholders, entrepreneurs etc by providing valuable information on solar energy and its applications specifically focusing on agriculture.